Swimming pool cleaning has received much attention in the last few decades and automated pool cleaners are well established, powered by water that is circulated by a pump that is installed at the pool. These cleaners clean the bottom and side walls of the pool below water level to a greater or lesser extent. Suction type pool bottom cleaners are connected at the pool weir but their effectiveness is steadily reduced as debris is accumulated in the leaf basket that is located in the weir.
Pool surface skimmers have been independently developed and are intended to draw floating debris off the surface of the pool water, to the extent this is achieved it reduces the amount of cleaning of the pool floor that is required. Again the skimmers work to a greater or lesser extent, most commonly the skimming function is linked to the pool weir, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,923 to Penney. The effectiveness of weir based skimmers is, however, much reduced by the connection of the pipe that leads to suction type automated pool bottom cleaners in the weir. Skimmers that are connected at the return nozzle for circulating water have disadvantages: the type that collects debris in a sock tends to burst the sock if not cleared timeously, other types tend to snap off where they are attached to the pool.